Summary CIE History Depth Study: Mussolini's Italy key 3 and 4
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A summary of all my research for key question 3 and 4 for Mussolini's Italy.
Key 3 focuses on Mussolini's economic polices which included the battle for the lira, births, grain and the establishment of the corporate state
Key 4 focuses on how society changed due to Mussolini's rule
Key Question 3: How far were Mussolini’s economic policies a success?
a. Economic aims
o The economy of Fascist Italy was weak.
o The economy had made li7le to no recovery a:er World War One
o High taxes, budget deficits, war debts, inflaEon, and unemployment.
o Mussolini know that it was a major area to address if he wanted to
become a major European power if he wanted the populaEon to see him
as the supreme leader.
o A:er 1918, Italy was a poor naEon compared to France and Britain.
o Mussolini appointed Alberto De’ Stefani as his Minister of Finance. De’
o Stefani simplified the tax code, cut taxes, curbed spending, liberalized
trade restrictions and abolished rent controls.
o These policies provided a powerful sEmulus. Between 1921 and 1925, the
Italian economy grew more than 20%.
o The boom boosted Mussolini's poliEcal standing and enabled him to
pursue what he really wanted, which was government control of the
economy.
o In 1925, he dismissed the finance minister and Mussolini established the
cartels for businesses, banks, labour unions, forms a professional people.
o He also introduced conscripEon for non-military work as well As for
military service. As a result of these intervenEons, industrial producEon
was down, imports were down, experts were down, and unemployment
was up. Mussolini decided that they needed to be more intervenEons.
o What Mussolini wanted to do was create an economic system that
provided a third way between capitalism and socialism.
o Capitalism depends on private property, employer owned, compeEng
enterprises, and the profit moEve.
o Socialism envisions a society in which the workers jointly own the
economic means of producEon.
o Communism is a form of socialism that calls for a revoluEon to destroy
capitalism, establish a dictatorship in the name of the workers, and
distribute economic producEon.
o Mussolini wanted to advance the economic state of Italy and his plan was
based on a twofold approach.
o A7acking the power of trade unions and therefore controlling the
workers.
o SeYng Italian targets, as he had with his ba7le for births.
, o The a7empt to get Italy on the road to economic prosperity. Mussolini
introduced 3 ba7les, the ba7le for Land, the Ba7le for the Lira, and the
ba7le for Grain.
o The Great Depression made Mussolini push even more for this autarky. To
achieve autarky Mussolini launched a series of iniEaEves called Ba7les.
The Battle of the Marshes / The Battle for Land
o clear marshland and make it useable for farming and other purposes.
o One area that was cleared was the PonEne Marshes – an area of
mosquito-infested bog land that was to have housing built on it.
o Cleared land also had roads built on them to improve Italy’s
infrastructure.
o These schemes were labour intensive and employed a lot of people
Aim:
§ To improve health (diseases came from swamps and marshes)
§ To increase the number of jobs
§ To make more land for farming
§ To serve as propaganda and show off to foreigners
Actions:
§ laws were passed on land reclamation
§ private landowners were encouraged to contribute in a drainage
scheme
§ The Pontine Marshes near Rome were drained
§ A few cities were created for show in Italy
Outcome:
§ ¾ of the reclaimed land was in the North
§ Between 1928 and 1938, only 80,000 hectares of land was
reclaimed
The Battle for the Lira
o to restore some of the purchasing power the lira had
o Mussolini believed that a weak lira looked bad for Italy when he was
trying to create the image of a super-power
o Mussolini inflated the value of the lira making exports more expensive.
o This created unemployment at home as many industries and firms could
not sell their goods.
o This parEcular ba7le proved a failure primarily as the economic base of
Italy was too small.
, o not an industrial naEon but in essence an agricultural one. Basing the
strength of your economy on agriculture rarely works and this was the
case in Italy.
o Italy got through the Depression in the 1930’a be7er than Europe’s
industrial power houses simply because she was an agricultural naEon.
Aim:
§ To fix the lira at 90 lire to the pound
§ Reduce inflation Show off the mighty power of Italy and the Italian
economy
Actions:
§ Banks put tight controls on the money supply
§ The government imposed wage cuts of around 20%
§ The government devalued areas of the economy to support the
strength of the currency
Outcome:
§ Technically, the Battle for the Lira was achieved in 1927 when it
was returned to the gold standard.
in 1936, the government was forced to devalue the lira, so this battle
can be seen as a failure.
The Battle for Grain
o Mussolini wanted to make Italy economically stronger and near enough
self-sufficient.
o Hence his desire to grow grain.
o the plan was to grow grain at the expense of fruit and vegetables which
were cheaper to produce.
o Italian grain became expensive at home and the price of bread rose.
o This hit the poor the worst as bread was a major part of their diet.
o In terms of economic growth, Italy did not have the expanse of industry
to bolster her farming based economy.
o Whereas Germany had its industrial power house in the Ruhr and Britain
had South Wales, the North-East, Midlands and North-West, Italy had
relaEvely few of these industrial zones.
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